Introduction and Getting Started Guitar Lesson
Introduction and Getting Started
Welcome to lesson 1 of the Recording and Micing series! Here Chris provides some information essential to getting your home studio up and running.
Taught by Chris Liepe in Recording and Micing seriesLength: 15:50Difficulty: 2.0 of 5
Supplemental Learning Material
Recording and Micing
Found in our Beginner Lesson SetsUnderstanding the basics to recording and micing your guitar can help you develop as a musician. Gain a grasp on how to create your own personal studio
Lesson 1
Introduction and Getting Started
Welcome to lesson 1 of the Recording and Micing series! Here Chris provides some information essential to getting your home studio up and running.
Length: 15:50 Difficulty: 2.0 Members Only
Setting Up Your Space
Setting up your space for optimal audio recording and play back is key to creating a successful home studio. Chris explains how to create the best possible environment in this lesson.
Length: 27:48 Difficulty: 2.5 Members Only
Understanding Microphones
Chris demonstrates how microphones work and how to choose the right microphone for a specific application.
Length: 12:26 Difficulty: 1.0 Members Only
Direct Recording
Chris explains how to successfully record through some direct recording techniques. When done correctly, you can record a clean signal from your guitar with no microphones.
Length: 8:33 Difficulty: 2.0 Members Only
Electric Guitar / Amp Micing Techniques
Chris liepe unlocks the wonders of micing an electric guitar amplifier. He explains how to find a speaker's "sweet spot" as well as the differences in tone between various common micing techniques.
Length: 21:13 Difficulty: 3.0 Members Only
Acoustic Guitar Micing Techniques
Chris Liepe teams up with Jim Deeming to present proper acoustic guitar micing techniques. Chris covers both single and dual micing placements and explains why each position is effective for certain situations.
Length: 20:34 Difficulty: 3.0 Members Only
Acoustic Recording Options
With the help of Jim's playing, Chris has rigged up Jim's guitar three different ways and demonstrates the different qualities of sound you can get by recording with a direct line in, micing the amp, micing...
Length: 6:18 Difficulty: 1.5 Members Only
Layering Multiple Guitar Tracks
With Jim playing 3 different sequences to overdub on top of one another, Chris will record them using 3 different micing techniques with 2 different guitars to create 1 final track.
Length: 14:07 Difficulty: 3.5 Members Only
Effects Signal Routing
Chris takes a step back from electric and acoustic micing to demonstrate the proper way to route your effects to achieve the best possible sound.
Length: 14:20 Difficulty: 2.0 Members Only
Direct Guitar Recording (Using a DAW)
Chris uses a Pro Tools session to demonstrate not only how to create a solid lead guitar sound within your home DAW, but how the basic tools and tips that he demonstrates can be applied to any software...
Length: 30:12 Difficulty: 4.0 Members Only
Direct Guitar EQ Basics
Chris Liepe reveals the basics of how to properly understand and utilize EQ tools within a DAW to define and enrich your overall guitar sound.
Length: 40:17 Difficulty: 4.0 Members Only
About Chris Liepe
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Chris Liepe was born on September 17th, 1981 in Portland OR. His first instrument was piano which he pursued until discovering his love for the electric guitar in high school. He became fans of such groups as Soundgarden, Collective Soul and U2 inspiring him to start singing, songwriting and helping others in their musical endeavors with teaching, co-writing and album production.
Having moved to Colorado with his family, he began gigging, recording and teaching in a number of music stores as well as out of his apartment until deciding to pursue music full time. He moved to Denver, CO to complete a Bachelors in Music Technology and was then hired on by Sweetwater Productions, a division of Sweetwater Sound and one of the largest, most successful recording studios in the Midwest.
Chris spent nearly 4 years at Sweetwater as a producer, recording engineer, studio musician and writer. During this time he had the privilege of working with many artists including Augustana, Landon Pigg, Jars of Clay, and Mercy Me. He also wrote for and played on numerous independent albums and hundreds of radio/TV commercials.
Wanting to get back to his favorite State in the world (Colorado) and feeling the urge to 'go freelance', Chris moved to Greeley, CO and opened his own recording and teaching studio. He continues to write and produce music for artists and agencies and is happy to be among the proud JamPlay.com instructors.
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Member Comments about this Lesson
Discussions with our instructors are just one of the many benefits of becoming a member of JamPlay.I hear a lot about latency issues with USB interfaces. Is this a problem with USB 2.0? Right now I am using my Mustang IV as a pre-amp: running the amp's headphone output into my Mac's audio input (both are i/8" stereo). Sort of a kludge, but it gets the volume up suffienctly for Garageband. Will a $150 USB interface do a better job than my Mac Pro at analog to digital conversion? Thanks.
yes it will. I've never had a problem with latency. Make sure you have plenty of RAM. the audio inputs on computers are very poor quality. even a cheap interface will serve you better for guitar playing
Chris, thanks for your prompt reply. Another USB question: whether you have a $150 two-input interface or a more expensive unit with multiple inputs, won't all inputs appear on the same track in your DAW since they are all coming in over one USB connection? If you want guitar and vocals on separate tracks, must you record them one at a time? Thanks.
No, each input is independently controllable.
where do you buy recording interfaces because i cant find them anywhere
www.sweetwater.com --- do a search for "recording interface" or "audio interface"
eBay.com is where you can find the most and cheapest
Great series Chris! I was wondering if you would be going over track mixing, bouncing, etc. and the best way to do that. I myself have a small Tascam 8 track DP-008, and have problems with copy/paste most all the time. I can't get the 'exact' points when to cut out a segment and play it over by pasting it back in for the next however measures needed. Most the time I find myself playing the entire rhythm guitar on a track (with mistakes included I find difficult when to punch in and out to sound like a clean 'redo'). Any ideas or upcoming lessons on how to best utilize these home units? Playing one or two measures of the main rhythm then duplicating it for the rest of the song would be great, but matching it up with the background drums/bass, etc can get to be a chore getting to sync together. Any info is most appreciated! Thanks Chris!
In this series, we're trying to stay away from specific instructions on any particular platform and go over general techniques. There will be lessons covering acoustic guitar mic'ing, EQing, Reamping, tracking, general mixing tips, but they won't be like, Sonar or Tascam specific stuff. Hopefully, though, buy seeing the general tips and techniques, you'll be able to take away something cool to try on your own rig.
Thanks for getting this series up and going. I was really missing those Pro Tools articles you were writing a while back. Regarding this lesson, I was all set with everything you said we should have until you got to the very last item, the keyboard controller. I've been wrangling with this one for a long time. So far, I've just been penciling in notes when I have needed a drum part, synth part, etc. and have managed to get by without buying a keyboard controller. It sounds like, while maybe not absolutely necessary, you highly recommend that we get one. Could you expound a bit on the pros and cons of having a keyboard controller or doing without and, if one does take the plunge, how much does the size (long v. short) of the controller matter? Thanks.
I think everyone, regardless of if they play piano or not, should have a keyboard controller of some kind. If you play piano and plan to do some actual piano-like recordings, you'll probably want a fully weighted (keys feel like a real piano) full size, 88 key unit. If you are not a piano player, you can get away with less than full size and probably only need semi weighted, which has a little bit of key response so it doesn't feel like a toy but doesn't feel like actual wood hammers. You will use a keyboard controller for helping you program drum loops, synth bass or simple synth/instrument lines that work their way in to your music. Some people can get away with a small, 20 key unit or so that has a couple knobs on it if they are just playing simple synth, drums and bass lines. These work well if space is an issue and you can transpose the octave that the controller works in. Being a piano player myself, I have problems dealing with anything less than a 60 key controller. Modern DAWS have so many instrument/features that can be better utilized if you have even a simple controller. If its your first keyboard controller, consider purchasing one of the more inexpensive MAUDIO ones $100-$250 depending on the size. They are basic, work over USB and feel fairly good for the price. You can find cheaper and smaller ones going all the way down to about $60 these days, and those'll get you started working with one, but you'll likely want to upgrade if you find it something you use regularly. Hope this helps, let me know if you have any more questions!!
Thanks for the feedback. You got me convinced that I need to quit diddling around and get the controller and get on with the program. The M-Audio product sounds like a good place to start. I use Pro Tools 8 le with an M Box 2 interface and M-Audio monitors. Getting an M-Audio controller would keep it all in the family, so to speak, and, perhaps, minimize any compatibility issues. I see the next lesson's out already. I'm off to check it out right after I check out the M-Audio controllers on the Avid website. Thanks again for the enlightenment on the controllers.
I have recently started looking at recording a bit more seriously - these lessons are timely! For those on a budget I have found quite a few free recording packages here: http://www.hitsquad.com/smm/win95/MULTITRACK_RECORDING/freeware/ My inexpensive Alesis USB suffered from latency problems - this was solved by installing the ASIO4ALL driver, others might also find this useful - http://www.asio4all.com/ Thanks Chris, absolutely brilliant - looking forward to the next lesson. David David
Most excellent...I hope you take something from start to finish, showing micing to mixing etc... Was that an Avalon 737? Joe Meek? Triton...drool drool
Later in the series, I actually explain different mic techniques and then record multiple parts over a backing track using different techniques and effects live on the video. So you get a chance to hear what different mic techniques sound like by them selves as well as in the context of a backing track. In this series, we don't go over loop creation or DAW specific functions/tutoring, but after we get the "how to make your guitar sound right" series out there for people to learn from and enjoy (this series) we'll get in to deeper recording tips and tricks. In the mean time, don't hesitate to shoot me some questions, and I'll do my best to answer them!
Thanks for doing these Chris this is great stuff..
Great thing! Thanks for this topic. Of course, you would like to choose a Mac and Logic Pro of which i am a die hard fan :-) BTW: Hey, what are you doing with my Headphones over there ;-) Looking forward for the next sessions
been looking forward to these lessons chris......thanks
This is going to be a GREAT series! Thanks Chris and Jamplay for doing this!
Another great series! Keep em coming!
Awesome. So glad these lessons are here now. Now when I have the money I might be able to set it up...if I can sound and sub-proof my walls. Heheheh.
Nice lesson Chris, and good editing Tyler :)